Responses to Congressional Committees (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

June 11, 2013

Michael Morisy

MuckRock News
Department MR 5539
PO Box 55819

Boston, MA 02205-5819

RE: FOIA Control No. BIA-2013-01164

Dear Michael Morisy:

This letter is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request of May 6, 2013, in which you seek, *“Copy of all responses sent to
Congressional commiittees between Jan. 1, 2008 and the date that this
request is processed.”*

Your request was referred to the Bureau of Indian Affairs FOIA Office for
processing on May 6, 2013, and assigned Request No. BIA-2013-01164.
Please reference this number in any future communications regarding your
request.

We have classified your request as an “other-use” request. As an other-use
requester, you are entitled to receive 2 hours of search time and 100 pages
of duplication of responsive records without charge before being asked to
pay for document search and reproduction. However, the Department of the
Interior does not bill for FOIA fees when they do not exceed $50.00. (43
C.F.R. §2.49). The fee incurred in responding to your request did not
exceed $50.00 and has been waived.

We have conducted a search in our respective offices, and found no
responsive documents for your request. You may appeal this decision to the
FOIA Appeals Officer. The FOIA Appeals Officer must receive your FOIA
Appeal no later than 30 workdays from the date of this final letter
responding to your FOIA request. Appeals arriving or delivered after 5 p.m.
E.T., Monday through Friday, will be deemed received on the next workday.
Your appeal must be in writing and addressed to:

Freedom of Information Act Appeals
Officer

Department of the
Interior

Office of the Solicitor

1849 C Street, NW, MS 6556

Washington, DC 20240

You must include with your appeal copies of all correspondence between you
and the bureau concerning your FOIA request, including a copy of your
original FOIA request and this denial letter. Failure to include this
documentation with your appeal will result in the Department’s rejection of
your appeal. The appeal should be marked, both on the envelope and the face
of the letter, with the legend “FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPEAL.” Your letter
should include in as much detail as possible any reason(s) why you believe
the bureau’s response is in error. As part of the 2007 FOIA amendments,
the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) was created to offer
mediation services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal
agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. Using OGIS services
does not affect your right to pursue litigation. You may contact OGIS in
any of the following ways:

Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road, Room 2510
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Email: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: (301) 837-1996
Facsimile: (301) 837-0348
Toll-Free: (877) 684-6448

For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law
enforcement and national security records from the requirements of FOIA.
See U.S.C. §552(c) (2006) & Supp. IV (2010). This response is limited to
those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a
standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be
taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist.

This concludes our response to your request. If you have any questions
regarding this response, please feel free to contact Hillary Renick at
(202) 513-7781.

Sincerely,

/s/

Daphne Berwald, Acting IA FOIA Officer